What if It's the Great Pumpkin Sam Winchester
by Katy M VT
Summary: What if this took place right after What if Lazarus Rising?  John and Mary are back.  Chapter 4 of 4 is up.
1. Family Remains

What if it took place right after my What if Lazarus Rising?

"We need to talk about everything that happened yesterday," John said. John, Mary, Sam, and Dean were sitting around a table that had been in Mary's family for centuries. It was held in trust, so it was still sitting there waiting for them after all these years.

Sam looked down at his feet. He knew that part of what his father wanted to talk about was what he did to those demons in the diner.

"Do you really think that was an angel?" Mary asked. She used to tell Dean that angels were watching out for him. She had always hoped that she was right, but knowing what she knew, she was afraid to truly believe.

"Of course not," John said.

"Why of course not?" Sam asked. He believed in God and angels. He had to. It was the only way he could cope with what he was. He needed to believe in divine forgiveness.

"Because there's no such thing, Sam," Dean said. "We went through this before, remember?"

"Why would he lie?" Mary asked.

"Maybe he was a demon," John suggested.

"He wasn't a demon," Sam said.

"How do you know?" Dean asked.

"I just know." It had probably been a mistake to say anything, but he knew when people were possessed. He could feel their demon "vibe."

Everyone else was quiet. They were thinking about what they saw Sam do yesterday.

"How did you do that?" John asked.

"I have demon blood in me," Sam said. They already knew that anyway, they had overheard him telling Mary. He just wouldn't tell them that he was replenishing it with Ruby.

"And that lets you tell who's possessed and exorcise them with your mind? You could never do that before," Dean pointed out.

Sam shrugged.

"Come on, Sam. That's not good enough. Even when you were having visions, you couldn't do that. After Yellow Eyes died, even that went away. What's going on?" Dean demanded.

"Ruby just taught me how to concentrate my power. That's all," Sam answered.

"Why are you friends with a demon, anyway? How did that happen?" Mary asked. When she was a kid, she had a friend who was a vampire. The vampire drank animal blood and didn't kill anybody, but when her father found out, he beheaded her. Mary didn't necessarily think all supernatural things were evil, but demons were from Hell. They would certainly have to be evil. But, she was willing to give her son the benefit of the doubt.

"She showed up after the devil's gate opened up and offered to help save Dean from his deal. It didn't work out that way, but she's been helping me since Dean died."

"Not anymore," John said.

Sam was glad to have his family back and he didn't want to argue. He had spent his whole life arguing with his father and the last thing he had done before he'd died was try to pick a fight. He would never make that mistake again. He would do everything he could to not fight with his father because he could never know when it would be the last time he saw him. He had no intention of giving up Ruby, but his family didn't need to know that. "Yes, sir," he said.

Dean was happy to hear that. He could never make Sam see the light where Ruby was concerned. Then, he wondered why that was so easy. Sam spent most of his life doing the opposite of what John wanted. "Really?" he asked.

"I've lost all of you and now you're back. I don't want to fight with you guys, so if you don't want Ruby around, she's gone," Sam said simply.

Dean still didn't look convinced and seemed to be about to argue further.

"Sam says he's done with Ruby, I think we need to believe him," Mary interjected. After only a couple of days with her family, she was picking up on the dynamics and she felt that maybe John and Dean were too hard on Sam.

Sam looked at her gratefully and shot her a small smile.

"What do we do now?" Sam asked.

"Maybe we should just hunt stuff," John said. It was all he knew anyway. He couldn't believe that things had changed so much that people didn't need saving. Mary didn't look thrilled with his decision but she didn't say anything.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"OK, I think I've got a job," Sam said looking up from his laptop.

"What is that anyway?" Mary asked.

"It's a computer," Sam said.

"That? It's too small. Computers are big. And how would you get a computer? They costs thousands of dollars."

Dean smiled. "You've been gone a long time, Mom."

"So, what's this job?" John asked. He was eager to get on with it. He was curious to see how they would all work together as a family. How everyone had changed since he'd died and how adding Mary to the mix would affect things.

"There's a guy in this small town in Idaho. He died from razor blades in his Halloween candy."

"Why is that our kind of thing?" Dean asked. "And it's still one day until Halloween? Why is he already eating candy?"

"Yeah, like you would leave Halloween candy hanging around waiting. Anyway, it was a bite size piece of candy and they found about 7 razor blades. It would be a little obvious don't you think?"

"OK, let's go," John said and led the way out to the car. He got in the driver's seat.

"Um, my car," Dean protested.

"I gave it to you," John pointed out.

"So, it's mine."

"I'm driving and that's that," John said, firmly.

"Fine, shotgun," Dean said.

"No, your mother sits in the passenger seat."

Sam was doing everything he could not to laugh.


	2. Tall Tales

"OK, we can't all go in to talk to the widow. How about Dean and I go in to question her and you two can go get us a hotel room?" John said. He was most used to working with Dean.

"Sure," Sam said and he and Mary went off to the hotel. He knew that he always ended up fighting with his dad when they hunted together. His father never trusted his instincts. Didn't think he knew enough about anything. Things were going to have to change, but it wasn't all going to happen on day one, so he might as well go off with his dad.

As Mary headed off with Sam, she was also glad of the arrangement. She didn't want to hunt. She had never wanted to hunt. But she didn't want to leave her family and she didn't know if she could fend for herself. She knew nothing about computers, or cell phones, or microwaves. All the things the rest of her family seemed to take for granted.

Dean beamed with pride that his father had chosen to work with him. He had missed his father. Even before his dad had died, he had missed him. He had been so hurt when he had just ditched him like that. Things had been strained between them the four years Sam was away at college. They had each blamed the other for his departure and it had taken its toll on their relationship.

They knocked on the door. "FBI," they said, flashing their badges and IDs that Dean had made up for them yesterday.

"Come in," she said and led them into the kitchen.

"How many razors did the police find?" John asked to get her attention as Dean looked around.

"7. How is that even possible?"

Dean opened the oven and the woman turned around. "The candy was never in the oven."

"Just being thorough," Dean said lamely. He was glad that he had looked, though, because he found a hex bag there. When she had turned back towards John he held up the bag for his father to see.

John wasn't sure what Dean was holding up to show him. It just looked like a little bag. Then he realized it was a hex bag. He hadn't dealt with any witches since before Sam left for college. He remembered that case. The coven was making a potion that involved a lot of spit and some of it had gotten on Dean. He had expressed his displeasure volubly.

"Did your husband have any enemies? A woman maybe?" John asked. He had found that most witches were either bitter old maids or bored housewives.

"Are you suggesting an affair?" she asked outraged. "No way. Besides, if someone wanted to kill my husband, don't you think they would find a better way to do it than a razor blade in a piece of candy that he might or might not eat?"

It was a reasonable question, but of course, she didn't know about the hex bag and witches. John and Dean apologized and left.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

"Here," Dean said and threw the hex bag to Sam when they got to their hotel room.

"You find this at the scene?" Sam asked.

"Yep. So, witches, right? I hate witches."

"Yeah, we know, spewing bodily fluids," Sam said in a distracted manner as he studied the contents of the bag.

"Witches. I've never gone up against a witch before," Mary said. "Aren't they human?"

"Yeah, but they get their power from demons," Dean said, justifying witch hunting.

"They do?" John asked. This was news to him.

"This is a very heavy duty hex bag," Sam said.

"How so?" John asked.

"This is a bone from a human baby, and this is an old celtic medallion," Sam said, holding up two of the items.

"Human bone?" Dean clarified.

"That's disgusting."

"Well, it's at least a couple hundred years old, if that makes you feel better."

"Not particularly," Dean responded.

"OK, so how do we find a witch?" Mary asked.

"That's always the problem," Dean said. "Could be anybody."

The Next Morning

"There was another death today?" Sam said, coming back from getting dinner for everyone.

"What happened?" John asked.

"High school girl at the school Halloween party died bobbing for apples."

"I've never thought of that as a particularly dangerous activity," Mary commented.

"Did she drown?" Dean asked.

"Nope, the water turned into a boiling vat while she was in there."

"Dean and I will check out the last vic, you and Mary check out the crime scene," John ordered and left with Dean.

Sam sighed. He didn't know how long he could take his father bossing him around before he felt the urge to fight with him. OK, he already felt the urge, how long he could fight it.

"What's wrong?" Mary asked him as they headed out to the school.

"Nothing. It's just that Dad's a bit bossy."

Mary smiled. "He's always been that way."

"So, it's not just because of hunting?"

"Nope."

The school wasn't far and it only took them a few minutes to get there. They walked in and Sam saw a cop talking to a teenage girl wrapped in a blanket.

"You look around, I'll talk to her," Mary said.

Sam walked over to the other side of the room and started looking for a hex bag.

The police officer just finished talking with the girl so Mary walked up to her. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"My name's Mary. I'm a psychiatrist. They sent me over to talk with any kids. This will be the first experience with death a lot of you have. What happened?"

"I don't know. It was weird. I was just bobbing for apples before Jenny and the water was fine. I don't understand."

"Did your friend know Luke Ellis?" Mary asked.

"I don't know who that is. I have to go now," she said.

"OK. What's your name?" Mary asked.

"Tracy Jones," she said as she left.

"Did you find anything out?" Sam asked as he walked up.

"No, did you find a…what's it called again?"

"A hex bag and yes I did. Let's get out of here and find out what Dad and Dean found out."


	3. After School Special

Both pairs of hunters ended up back at the hotel at the same time. "What did you find out?" they all asked at the same time.

"Luke Ellis was squeaky clean," Dean said. "We couldn't find any evidence of an affair, or crime, or anything. Because the latest murder took place at the high school, we looked to see if there was any connection with the school. They have a regular teenage babysitter named Tracy Jones, but that's about it."

"Tracy Jones?" Mary echoed.

"Yeah," John said, picking up on her tone.

"That's the name of the girl I talked to at the school. She said she didn't know who Luke Ellis was."

"Why would she lie about that?" Dean wondered.

"Let's see if I can pull up her school records," Sam said as he hacked into the school's database.

"Find anything?" John asked. This was the one part of the hunt that he had always thought Sam had excelled at—research. He saw the research as the necessary evil to find the evil, but he thought that it was Sam's favorite part.

"Yeah. Tracy had a violent altercation with her art teacher."

"OK, you and Dean go talk to him," John decided. There was only one job to do right now and he wanted to spend some time with Mary.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

Sam and Dean walked into the high school art room. They had obviously been working on Halloween projects because the room was filled with creepy masks. "Remind you of anything?" Sam asked.

Dean had just been having visions of Hell and was wondering if Sam could read minds on top of everything else. "What do you mean?"

"High school and all that angst. What did you think I meant?"

Dean breathed a sigh of relief. He shook his head. "Nothing."

They approached the teacher at the back of the room. "Mr. Smith?" Sam asked.

"Please, everybody calls me Don."

"OK, Don," Sam corrected. "We'd like to talk to you about Tracy Jones."

"Tracy? She's crazy."

"What happened?" Dean asked.

"Her artwork had gotten inappropriate. She would cover page after page with murders and blood and old symbols."

"Symbols like this?" Sam asked, holding up the medallion he had found in the hex bag.

"Yeah, I think so," he said.

"Thanks," Sam said and they left. "I think Tracy is definitely our witch," he whispered to Dean.

"You think?"

John and Mary were sitting in the hotel room awkwardly trying to start a conversation. It had been like this since they had come back from the dead. He was disappointed that she had lied to him from the beginning of their relationship and she was more than disappointed that he had raised her sons as hunters. She knew what kind of life that was for a child and for that to happen to her children was her worst nightmare.

Suddenly, they heard what sounded like a flapping behind them and they spun around to look. "It's you. Castiel, right?" John said, as he reached behind him for a salt gun.

"That won't do you any good," Castiel said and took the gun away from John. "Angels are immune to salt."

"Then why take the gun away?" John asked.

"It would make a loud noise. Very inconvenient."

"What do you want?" John asked.

"Remember when I told you we had work for you to do? It's time."

Sam and Dean walked in. Sam felt a little giddy seeing the angel again. It was crazy. Who would ever think that an angel would have taken a personal interest in his family?

"Have you found the witch?" Castiel asked.

"Yes, we've found the witch," Dean said. "What's it to you?"

"Have you killed the witch?" Castiel asked instead of answering the question.

"No, but we know who it is."

"You need to find her and kill her, as soon as possible," Castiel ordered.

"Well, that was sort of the plan, but why?" Dean asked, getting irritated. His father was the only person he took orders from. He didn't care if this thing did claim to be an angel. That didn't give him the right to boss him around.

"It's the reason I brought you all back," Castiel said.

"You brought us all back to kill a witch?" Mary asked. Seemed strange, you would think there would be people already alive who could take care of one little witch.

"No, that's only part of it. Lillith is breaking the 66 seals."

"I take it that's not a show at Sea World?" Dean asked.

"Dean," his father admonished. Dean never seemed to have learned the fact that there were times when joking was not appropriate.

"No. Think of the seals as the lock on a door," Castiel said.

"OK. What happens when the last one breaks?" Mary asked, afraid of the answer.

"Lucifer walks free."

"Lucifer? There's no such thing," Dean said.

"Unfortunately, that is not true. And if Lucifer gets free he will bring all of Hell up with him. Dean, you of all people, should not want that."

"Of course I don't want that," Dean growled. "But what does that have to do with this witch?"

"She is attempting to break one of the seals. Three sacrifices in the three days leading up to Halloween, will raise Samhain," Castiel explained.

"Samhain?" Sam asked in alarm.

"Who's that?" Dean asked.

"He's a demon. He was exorcised centuries ago, and he's the origin of Halloween," Sam explained.

"Yes, and once he's raised, he will go on to raise ghosts, zombies, ghouls, and vampires. So, not only will a seal be broken, but there will be much chaos," Castiel added.

"Great, so tell us where the witch is and we'll gank her," Dean said.

"I'm not omniscient. This witch is powerful. She's able to cloak herself, even from angels. She could make the final sacrifice any time, you need to hurry," and with that he disappeared.


	4. All Hell Breaks Loose

"Where do you think she could be?" Dean asked Sam. "We already checked her apartment and all the normal teenage hangout places. Nobody knows where she is."

"I bet she's at the school," Sam said.

"Why would you think that?" John asked. Time was of the essence and Sam was always coming up with crazy theories that didn't pan out.

"Because she's actually going to raise that demon, right? Samhain is known for his love of heat. She'll want to be close to the hottest heat source in town and that's the kiln in the artroom."

"That's the best theory we have," Dean cut in when it looked like their dad was about to argue. "Let's go."

Dean grabbed the keys before John could and it felt a little bit more like old times with him in the driver's seat and Sammy sitting shotgun. Old times with the bonus of their parents in the back seat. He sped off towards the school.

They crept in the school and as they approached the art room, they heard chanting. They all pulled their guns and ran into the room. As they entered the floor was splitting and dark smoke was pouring out. "You're too late," Tracy gloated.

Dean shot her anyway. The only good witch was a dead witch as far as he was concerned. He walked further into the room and nearly tripped over the dead art teacher.

The smoke continued pouring into the room and went straight into John Winchester's mouth. "Crap," Dean said, as he fingered Ruby's knife inside his jacket. He couldn't stab his own father.

John/Samhain looked at everyone in the room and calmly turned around and walked out the door. He didn't need to bother killing these stupid mortal by himself. He was about to unleash the terrors of Hell on this town, on this earth. They would do his dirty work for him.

"Where do you think he's going?" Mary asked.

"Well, where would you go if you wanted to raise the forces of the night?" Sam asked.

"The cemetery," Dean and Mary answered in unison.

The three of them took off. "We can't use the knife on Dad," Sam pointed out.

"I know. We'll have to exorcise it."

"He's not going to stand still to be exorcised, Dean. We may need more than our usual weapons."

"Sam, no, you're not going to use your psychic whatever. Words will be enough."

"Dean, maybe he should try the other way," Mary said. She didn't want anything to happen to John. Sam seemed to know what he was doing the other day.

"No," Dean insisted. He had never even liked it when Sam had visions, and this was so much more. "Case closed."

Mary realized Dean was just as bossy as John. Sam must have had a real fun childhood.

SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

The demon headed down the steps of the mausloleum. There were a bunch of human kids congregating in one of the cells. He closed the gate and locked it.

"Hey!" one of the boys yelled. "You locked us in here." That was all he had time to do before the walls started shaking and people started crawling out of their crypts. The boy was dragged back into one to spend eternity.

Sam, Dean, and Mary clambered down the stairs. "Help them," Sam directed Dean and Mary.

"Dude, you're not going off on your own."

"Just help them," Sam insisted and went off after the demon.

"I'll go with him," Mary said and ran off after him before Dean could protest. More than anything he wanted to go with them, but he knew someone had to stay and save these stupid kids.

"Get back!" he yelled and shot the lock off the door. He herded the kids past him and went in to deal with the ghosts and zombies.

"Hey," Sam said as he entered the altar where Samhain was performing his ritual. The demon shot a bright, white light at him, but Sam kept walking at him. "That demon ray-gun stuff, it doesn't work on me. Omnis imundis," he began, but the demon ran at him and started attacking him. Sam was fighting back when Mary walked into the room.

"No," she screamed. This wasn't going to end well for her husband or her son.

The demon shoved Sam aside and strode up to Mary. He grabbed her. Sam did the only thing he could. He held out his hand and started exorcising the demon with his mind. He knew his family was going to be upset with him, but this was the only way to save his parents.

Dean walked in the room and saw what was going on. The demon was just spitting out the last of the smoke. John slumped to the floor and Mary fell down and knelt beside him.

"John, are you OK?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Sammy, I saw what you did. I thought I gave you a direct order not to do that anymore."

"I know, but what was I supposed to do?" Sam asked.

Dean was torn. On the one hand that psychic thing really freaked him out. On the other hand, Sam had a point. If he knew how to do what Sam did and could do it, he didn't think he would have been able to not do it when it came to saving his family.

"You should have used that knife your little demon friend gave you. That kills demons right?" John asked. He had only seen it used once, but it seemed pretty effective.

"It also kills the host, Dad. In this case that would be you," Sam added unnecessarily.

"We had this same argument back in Missouri. I told you to shoot me with the Colt when the Yellow-Eyed demon had possessed me and you didn't do it. If you had, I would have died naturally, I wouldn't have sold my soul, you wouldn't have died so your brother wouldn't have had to sell his soul. Everything wouldn't have gotten so messed up."

"I'm sorry I've always been such a disappointment to you, Dad," Sam yelled.

Dean knew this was coming. He had been surprised they had managed not to fight for this long. Mary watched on in horror. Was this what their relationship had always been like or was this an aberration? And had John really expected Sam to kill him, either now, or the time he was talking about earlier? That was a terrible burden to place on one's son.

"OK, guys, separate corners," Dean placated. This was the only part of having his family together that he didn't miss. It was tiring always being the peacekeeper.

"That's a good idea," John said. "I'm not going to hunt with someone who can't follow my orders. Sam, you need to promise me here and now that you're never going to use your powers again, or you need to leave the family."

"Always with the ultimatums, Dad. Always so eager to kick me out of the family. I don't think I can keep that promise, so I'll be going."

"You're just going to send him out on his own?" Mary asked. This was her baby son. As far as she was concerned, he was a baby a week ago.

"He made his own choice," John said. "Mary, Dean, let's go."

Dean followed his father out. Not because he was being a good little soldier, like in the old days, but because this time he truly agreed with his father. If Sam was going to use his powers, he didn't think he could be around him. This was not the Sam he knew, the Sam he had practically raised. This was someone else entirely and Dean didn't want to lose the memory of his brother to this new being.

"I'm not going," Mary said.

"What?" John asked.

"I think you're being ridiculous. This is our son, no matter what he is or what he does. I won't turn my back on him, and I'm ashamed that you would." She was going to add Dean to that, but Dean was her son, too. She loved him and could never be ashamed of him. She realized that it was a tough situation, but she didn't want to leave Sam all alone. He seemed emotionally vulnerable as it was, like the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

"Fine," John said and stomped out. Once his mind was made up that was it. Mary wasn't the Mary of his memories anyway. He realized that he had romanticized and perfected her over the years. The real her couldn't live up to his ideal memories. Better to let her go.

"Be careful, guys," Dean said, with a tear forming in his eyes. Why could he never have his whole family?

The End

Again, I'm not going to leave it like this forever. I will write another story to get them back together, most likely, at some point. Either that, or maybe get Sam and Dean back together and Mary and John, or maybe switch so that Dean goes off with Mary and Sam with John, or maybe Uriel will just come and smite them all because he's mad I wrote him out of this story, but there will be more.


End file.
